Hyde5: Smith stock up; Clay stock down

October 8, 2012|Dave Hyde

1. Stock going up after Sunday's 17-13 win: 1. Sean Smith. For the second straight week, he had primary responsibility for an elite receiver and played well. A.J. Green was contained for the most part with nine catches for 65 yards, a 7.3-yard average, and a 2-yd TD.; 2. Nolan Carroll. With Richard Marshall out, he became a starter and prime target for the Bengals. He played well throughout (even returning from concussion test) and broke up key passes on Bengals final series; 4. Koa Misi. He keeps making plays in his third year. 4. Randy Starks. 1.5 sacks and an interception. Not a bad day. 5. Ryan Tannehill. His 92.3 QB rating was his best and, more importantly, he didn’t make the mistake Andy Dalton did.

2. Stock going down: 1. Charles Clay. A key drop in fourth quarter on would-be big play and then running out of bounds in the final two minutes to stop the clock. Talent is there. Plays still aren’t; 2. Jorvorskie Lane. When your role is expanded a little for a run in the red zone, you can’t fumbles; 3. Dan Carpenter. Kicks outside 45 yards are a coin flip and at some point that can figure into in-game thinking. He was one-for-two yesterday and now is 11-for-27 on them since 2010. 4. Lamar Miller. Just from the standpoint he wasn’t put in the game. Wasn’t trusted in pass protection?

3. Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden had this to say of Dolphins defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle: “He did a great job mixing things up and kept us off balance all day,” Gruden said. “When we had opportunities we missed them and they made more plays than we did, obviously. We could never get our running game going, which put us in some third-and-longs, and with that pass rush that they have, that is not a good situation.”

4. SI's Peter King wrote this about Ryan Tannehill in his Monday column: "The rookie out of Texas A&M has been a 64 percent passer (against Arizona and Cincinnati), and you can see he doesn't get jittery when he feels pressure. "It's not that complicated,'' he said from Cincinnati after the 17-13 Miami win. "I'm just getting more comfortable as the weeks go on. What I was happy about today was I was able to make some good checks at the line (audibles), and I like the face we made good decisions."

5. While everyone always has quibblesabout a certain play call or situation, I love Mike Sherman’s offense. For the first time in more than a decade, the Dolphins are attacking downfield. And Sherman is relentless in assuring that happens.